The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-02-23

me pfeScnCc Vi tiOuey your
ing, Tagmer, after what l have just re
lated, continued the Syndic, must be ex-
planned"
As these damaging revelations followed
one upon the other, q prolonged uproar
broke out among the troop of guides. The
examination for a while could not proceed.
Stunned by the evidence against him, Uric
Tagmer answered not word, but silent as
stone stood beside the table. The Syndic
was obliged to repeat his question
Il live upon the road to the Lower Gla-
cier, - Uric answered at last his voice hoarse
and broken with emotion; people fire.
quently stop at nay hut for ropes and hatch
cts. One day NJ. Schuchmann, in pity for
our poverty and our misery, gave a hand
full of gold to my wife. She buried it, for
our door doesn't latch, and we are always
from home"
''They tell me-" said the Syndic, that
your destitution is caused by the extrav4-
yance with which you have gratified her
whims. Do you know what else they say?"
NO." responded Uric, in voice sud-
denly become firm and clear; Il do not"
They say this-that the beauty of the
woman whom you call your wife had in
famed the fancy of this wealthy banker,
and that because of it he has returned every
summer for the last three years to the
frozen regions of the glaciers His liberality
to the woman, to which you have just testi-
fled, goes far toward substantiating the
truth of this gossip Perhaps you have
thought the same and meant to rid yourself
of rival as well as to secure the needed
sources"
Submissive, SPECIFICS and resigned, Uric
Tagmer had listened to the evidence against
him, but now a sudden flame of anger leaped
into his eyes; he beat his fist upon the table
and Kissed the words at his accrIser with the
rage of one who has suffered long without
revolving.
LET them come TO me,'' he shouted;
''thOse inventors of blackguard lies. Maria
Muller in the sight of God is my wife. She
is a brave woman; love her; l defend her
against all who would insult her. Bring
them before me, tell you; bring them be-
fore me-those liars who hide their heads
like hogs in their own filth.
The Syndic did not respond to this pas
sionate explosion. Uric was compelled to
give up his certificate and even his little
leather portfolio, its many pages crossed
and recrossed with the names of those he
had faithfully conducted in that land of the
sky; but his ancient comrades in going
from the room passed him by with averted
heads and unrelenting visages an ominous
silence fell upon the assembled villagers,
each one asking himself anxiously: is it
justice only that has been done today"
the village, and the roads of the neighbOr-
hood were all deserted Uric Tagmer fled
from the town hall and walked with furtive
steps through the inhabited quarters of the
village. For more than an hour he fol
lowed closely the rounded powders which
marked the bed of the brook turning sharp
To the left when the clearing was reached to
find himself upon the threshold of a niser-
able hut crouched at the foot Of the Lower
Glacier To enter there tFIIly nep1
to turn the lock of the door. woman of
tall and commanding stature leaned against
the door frame, her face buried in her
folded At the noise which Uric
made in stopping upon the stones she raised
her head
''Well, !" she cried, with eager move
ment, 'well, is it ended?"
1T Is ended, " he answered, with burst
Of tears; ended and he threw himself
upon the ground at the feet OF Maria Null
Ter.
Little by little, sitting side by side on the
wretched pallet which formed their bed, he
told her of all that had happened at the au-
dience hall, and from time to time, as the
story proceeded, he would rave and beat
himself upon the floor with the inextin-
guishable rage of maddened wild beast,
sometimes sobbing, sometimes laughing,
in fury of helpless anger. After the first
eager question, Maria Muller did not speak,
but when the agony of her husband required
a recognition she would lightly touch him
with her tender, silent lips, reassuring him
by the eloquence of that mute but univer-
sal language.
II had been perhaps thirty years since the
disappearance of Rudolph Schuchmann into
the crevasse of the Peak of Terror-thirty
years of brief and pallid summers and bit
ter, frozen winters-when an extraordinary
rumor spread through the valley. The
Lower Glacier had begun to move and was
descending straight upon the hut of Uric
Tagmer. There was no longer possibility
of doubling it when examination was made
into the condition of things Immediately
surrounding it.
"'Tis the power of God-the hand of JUS
ticer' cried the frightened villagers, not yet
enlightened by scientific research into the
cause of this natural phenomenon Tagmer
himself had been the first to recognize the
peril which menaced him, and only day
ago he had seen a grove of sturdy larches
slowly swallowed by the moving glacier,
and moment later white and monstrous
pyramid of ice and snow standing in the
place where the trees had been
Often in the dead of night he would be
Weakened from his slumber by the crash of
falling trunk, toppled from its foothold
by the pressure of the glacier Little by lit
tue iedN IDdsS Oh TINS sOIltl lbIIetiI IOOh
| from Tagmer his grove of walnuts, and
piece by piece, as the years slipped by, the
whole Of his meager pasturage.
At last, for want of food for the herd, the
almost maddened man was forced 10 part
| with lis goats and with every resource ex-
| hausted, 10 move TO corner of the higher
| Alps and seek again - make livelihood by
| floating logs from the Lutzchine Nor in the
| direction of InterlakCu.
After long periods of staguati1n, when it
| would seem if. repentiuE of its course,
| the glacier intended 70 be still. IL would re-
| sumo the onward march. the constant
| changes in its extremities OblIGing even the
! troops of guides to make a route for them
selves that turned aside all human passage
J from the former hut of Tagmer.
| In the spring of IS great blocks of ice,
| exhalin- an intense cold had advanced to
1 =. -. -